release and go

2002-08-11 [ 12:55 am ]
Wow, I actually got some stuff done tonight. I finished a hefty leg of the website I am currently designing for some friends, and I burned another CD for another friend.

It's for Natalie, she leaves for Europe in a little bit. She won't be back before I move to London, so I'm not sure when I'll see her next.

Anyhow, since I am pretty drained thanks to yesterday's marathon of tedium and sleep deprivation, I figured instead of posting the track listing in overkill, I would do so here, and write a little (impersonal) blurb on each song, much like I used to when I made her tapes. (Warning: this may get lengthy)

So:

1) The Beatles - Two Of Us

One could not dedicate a better song to promote friendship. She likes the Beatles (everyone does, right?) and it was a tossup between this one and She's Leaving Home but I found that one to be a little saccharine.

2) Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane

Up until now I only ever liked the Cowboy Junkies cover of this song, but I realize that the original purveyed a less melancholy sound.

3) Pearl Jam - Do The Evolution

Yeah, I know the flow is broken with this. I have a rule that every CD I burn must have a Pearl Jam or Pearl Jam-affiliated track. Usually when I burn for others, I choose one of their tearful, slower tracks. But this is not only Eddie's heaviest song, I feel it is also one of his most passionate...

4) Stone Temple Pilots - Dancing Days

Yes, the Led Zeppelin cover... But I think that Scott Weiland's voice does better justice to the song. It's dull inflection, and his context ads some sort of desperation to the chorus: "you'll be my only, my one and only!" Please?

5) Ben Harper - Burn One Down

Every student loves Ben Harper, right? Well, I don't. He is a slightly urbanized Dave Matthews. But this song uses enough funky beats to get the duke.

6) Bjork - Hyperballad

Yeah, well... Who knows... Seems like the whole world is in love with Bjork, instead of me. And if there is one thing I learned from High Fidelity (finally), is that a good man makes mixed tapes that the recipient would like to hear. Not what he wants the recipient to hear...

7) Massive Attack - Teardrop

This sounds like the love theme from Blade Runner. Or Dido after the apocalypse. Whatever. It is hip, and it is haunting, and I really like it, and you should to.

8) Tori Amos - Siren

I had given up on her. But this track is exclusive to a rare soundtrack, as far as I know, and is unique in that the percussion is unorganized to the point that you wonder if your mp3 is flawed. It's not. I ripped it, and downloaded several versions. It's unusual, and it is cool. For Tori.

9) David Bowie - I'm Afraid Of Americans

This downloaded under the title "Osama Bin Laden - Afraid Of Americans". Very clever, you nitwit. But if you had any semblance of ears or brain, you would realize that this is quite the anti-American song.

10) Incubus - Warning

I had to take this compilation back to the more mainstream. The last Incubus album had it's up and downs, but this was a certain up. The soaring track is likely the highlight of the record, and pretty boy Brandon Boyd's song writing career. Except Aqueous Transmission. But it didn't fit.

11) Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind

When I was a kid, I had the Chipmunks version on tape. For some reason, this is excluded from the 80s lunch-hour and retro-sunday canon that is today's radio. Likely because it is a cover. Note: I was going to include the Elvis version. But I didn't.

12) The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again

Yes! Yes! Yes! How can you not love these lyrics: "Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head."

13) Rufus Wainwright - California

And how can you not love these lyrics: "I don't know this sea of neon / Thousand surfers, whiffs of freon / And my new grandma Bea Arthur! Come on over."

14) XTC - Dear God

This makes the Sarah McLachlan version sound like it was sung by a regretfully knocked-up teen.

15) Dashboard Confessional - A Plain Morning

Well, I'll admit, I found Chris Carrabba's little bohemian setup to be quite grating at first. But there is something quite brave about it... So I give the little pretty boy art-student props... He is scoring points for the sensitive guy like me.

16) Coldplay - Help Is Round The Corner

Just a song, really, from a competent band, who is struggling to transcend that other adjective I am tempted to use to describe them: "derivitive".

17) Collective Soul - Needs

Well, now, everyone thinks that "The World I Know" and "Run" are much better songs, and that this one is horribly over-produced. Well, they are sort of right. But "Needs" has a different message, a slightly different tone, and the second coolest video in the C-Soul catelogue to boot. The band themselves forget this song- it was the only single they snubbed when I saw them in concert.

18) Dave Matthews - In My Life

Well, we begun with the Beatles, we end with the Beatles being covered, to avoid that pesky album-compilation sin: thou shall not repeat artists. But you have to bookend the compilation somehow. Recorded for the 20 year anniversary of John Lennon's death, AND as a reaction to 9/11, I personally have never felt Mr. Matthews so attatched to what he is playing. Maybe because he doesn't have the "Band" mucking him up. The dude ought to be the next Phil Collins. If that means anything to you.

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I know what you're thinking: you want me to make you a CD, and you want me to explain it here. WELL, you kind of have to earn a friendship like Natalie has; through years and years of tribulation. Here's to you, kid. I'll miss you.

photo by: fishy